Economy

Costs of living rise and fall differently in different areas. Do you think that prices in Beverly Hills, CA change the same as prices in Gary, IN? Of course not! The Chapwood Index reports the unadjusted actual cost and price fluctuation of the top 500 items on which Americans spend their after-tax dollars in the 50 largest cities in the nation.

People often ask me how and when I foresee the U.S. corporate debt bubble bursting and the answer is quite simple: the U.S. corporate debt bubble will likely burst due to tightening monetary conditions, including rising interest rates. Words: 302

The U.S. government pays the interest by issuing new debt but that new debt increases total debt and (eventually) drives up interest rates, which requires more borrowing to pay the annual interest payments. Another year older and deeper in debt! A reset will occur when the debt load becomes too heavy.

Earlier this year, I wrote a series of articles, dubbed "the Great Reset", predicting a debt “train wreck” and eventual liquidation. I estimated we had another year or two before the crisis becomes evident. Now, I’m having second thoughts. Recent events tell me the reckoning could be closer than I thought just a few months ago. Words: 375

The U.S., like the EU and most western nations, is “kicking the can down the road.” Consequently, a U.S. and global debt crisis looks likely in the coming months and years.

The world is in a mess economically, financially, politically and morally. The excesses and moral decadence of the magnitude the The world is experiencing today can never vanish in an orderly way. Sadly, only a total economic collapse can solve the problem and this is, of course, inevitable. No government, no corporation and no individual can or will ever repay the $250 trillion debt that is owed.

The question is not whether there will be a crisis, but when. In the past fifty years, we have seen more than eight global crises and many more local ones, so the likelihood of another one is quite high because the factors that drive a global crisis are all lining up.

NAFTA is gone, replaced by largely the same agreement with a different name, the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA). Talk about tinkering around the edges.

Would you have appreciated a single number that could have given you a clear and unmistakable warning before the tech stock bubble collapsed? How about an unequivocal mathematical warning in 2006 that major financial trouble was on the way, well before the problems of 2007 and 2008? Well, while these warnings (called yield curve inversions) are quite uncommon, having occurred only three times in the last 35 years- followed relatively quickly by a recession - but are back in the news again, because we just may be nearing another inversion.

Investors are gradually becoming more anxious about trends and various political decisions. Tariffs are part of this anxiety. Interest rates are part of this anxiety. A possible market correction is also part of this anxiety. This current emotion of anxiety could turn into concern which could, in time, turn into fear.